Providence, R.I., October 11, 2017– The Slater Technology Fund today announced it has invested $50,000 in Vitae Industries, a pharmaceutical manufacturing technology platform. Slater’s investment was part of a $1.8-million Seed Preferred funding round led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, a New York City-based seed-stage venture capital fund. Other investors in the round included BoxGroup, Compound VC, Founder Collective and Techstars.

Vitae Industries develops a robotic hardware platform that uses innovative automation to make personalized medications on demand. It was founded by CEO Jeanine Sinanan-Singh, a Harvard-trained computer scientist who left Microsoft to start the company, and Chief Technology Officer Daniel DeCiccio, a Brown University graduate with degrees in biomedical engineering and chemical physics. The company advanced its research and development through a sponsored collaboration with the lab of Brown University Professor of Medical Science and Engineering Edith Mathiowitz funded by an Innovation Voucher grant from CommerceRI, and also participated in Brown University’s Breakthrough Lab (B-Lab) accelerator program. Professor Anubhav Tripathi and Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship Executive Director Danny Warshay are among the company’s advisors. Vitae Industries now works with three Rhode Island companies, including Bay Computer Associates and Tedor Pharma, each a valued member of Slater’s network of advisors, along with Phusion RX.

“Vitae Industries’ technology platform has the opportunity to inject some badly needed personalization at the edge of the pharmaceutical supply chain,” said Thorne Sparkman, managing director at Slater Technology Fund. “Slater is excited to be involved in supporting the company through its next stage of growth.”

About Slater Technology Fund

The Slater Technology Fund is an independently chartered impact investment fund that operates in accord with best practices of venture capital investing, backing new ventures committed to basing and building businesses in Rhode Island. Leveraging state and federal funding, Slater focuses its resources on the support of entrepreneurs who have the vision, leadership and commitment to build substantial commercial enterprises. Slater typically invests at the inception stage in the development of a new venture, often based upon ideas and technologies originating in academic institutions and/or government research laboratories located within the region. In most cases, investments are premised upon the possibility of raising substantial follow-on financing, from venture capital investors or from strategic partners, with a view toward accelerating the generation of significant numbers of high-value, high-wage jobs over the intermediate to longer-term. For more information, visit www.slaterfund.com.